Employment

Employment Opportunities at Bearskin Lodge

Bearskin Lodge is the premier family resort located on the famous Gunflint Trail, about 26 miles from the town of Grand Marais, MN. We are on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Right outside our door are a million and a half acres of pristine lakes and rivers. Our facilities are the best available.

It takes much hard work by dedicated staff to maintain the quality of service our guests have come to expect. If you are interested in joining the Bearskin staff, we would like to hear from you! Fill out our job application and forward it to us. The application is found linked to this page at the bottom.

Important! Before applying please click here to read this information page. Not everyone will be happy working at Bearskin. See if you’re well-suited to living here before you apply.

2016 – 2017 employment —

Our full-time staff for fall 2016 has been hired.

Winter 2016 – 2017

Housekeeping/ front desk or just housekeeping — choose the combo that you’d enjoy most: Full-time winter job for employee who can start close to Christmas and can help with housekeeping and front desk. Nice apartment housing available at an extremely low cost. No previous experience needed, we will train you; but you must have a proven good work record in some type of job, enjoy cleaning and organizing things, work well with a team of friends, have a clean, welcoming appearance, and have pleasant interpersonal interactions with people. Previous housekeeping experience makes you the dream applicant, but if you are a person who is generally tidy and organized, and if you can move fast and strong, then you can learn to do this. Every day is a good work-out here; this is a very physically active job. And yes, it really, really helps if you love winter! Driver’s license required. We prefer employees with a car; your life is nicer if you can get away from us sometimes. Extra pay possibilities for applicant with strong background as a server in an upscale dining room. This job could continue after winter for the right person, or it could just be a winter position.

Upscale dining server: Saturday nights, plus a few extra dates between December 26 – March 4. This is a great moneymaker for an experienced server who would enjoy picking up a few extra well-paying hours. Single seating, guests will already have pre-ordered their dinner, and your job is to serve them a great 3- 4 course meal graciously and efficiently. Awesome tips — Bearskin guests are extremely appreciative of good service. Start at about 5 PM with dinner set-up, usually done by or before 9 PM. Send us an email sue@bearskin.com

Long-term employee search — thinking about the future:

Resort Couple Wanted We are looking for a “resort couple” to join our team — two people who love the northwoods, are hard workers, will be willing to stay for at least a year, and who would bring certain much needed skills to the Bearskin team. We don’t expect to find applicants with all of these skills, but we’re hoping to find a couple who might fill a few of these gaps: mechanical skills, small engine maintenance, ability to safely use a chain saw and wood-splitter, snowmobile or groomer experience, experienced office management skills, restaurant background, server skills, website management experience, artistic skills, or a strong housekeeping background. If you are a couple who could contribute some of those skills to our team, let’s talk. We offer lakeside housing with a BWCA lake view that would be the envy of many in Cook County. This is a healthy, non-smoking environment that is ideal for people who get along well with others, like working hard, and who can find joy in living and working in a remote wilderness location. Funny hours, working on some holidays, vacation times in the quiet season — these may all be part of a Bearskin job, so if your dream job is 9-5 M-F, then this isn’t it. Salary negotiable, but we pay proven employees very fairly. If this sounds like where you want to be for the next year(or more!), contact sue@bearskin.com

Summer 2017

We start taking applications for summer 2017 as early as January. All of our summer employees are cross-trained in numerous areas — you will probably work at the front desk, answer phones, help with canoe trips, advise tourists on good hiking destinations and because all of us do this all the time, help clean cabins. Clean cabins are how we all get to enjoy this life on the edge of the BWCA! Some of our employees need to be able to lift canoes, mow and trim lawns, stack wood, and clean up at the campground. For 2017 w are especially interested in finding at least one employee who has craft or art skills, or some experience teaching naturalist classes.

It is important when you apply that you provide us with accurate ending dates for your summer availability. If you will be returning to college after the summer, please check your college’s 2017 calendar before you apply. We don’t hire “extra” people like larger resorts often do, planning that a certain percentage of employees will quit or get fired. We truly intend to keep you all summer if you are hired here. We choose our staff based on employing the correct number of people to get us through the season, so ending dates are very important. Choosing to leave Bearskin earlier than your contractual end date leaves your co-workers and employers overworked and unhappy. Please decide on the right end date from the time you apply.

If you think you’d be a good match for Bearskin, fill out the application(PDF) or application (DOC) linked to this page. Be sure to include references. We will call or e-mail them before we hire you. A good cover letter explaining your interest in Bearskin employment helps set your application apart — tell us more about yourself.

We try to do in-person interviews, but in case we can’t meet with you, it always helps if a picture is included with your application. It may be the only way we “meet” before you apply. If you have the capability to do a Skype or Facetime video interview, please let us know in your cover letter.

We pay an hourly wage, not a set “per month” salary. We adhere to fair employment practices. You will not be asked to work a large number of unexpected hours, and if circumstances require many more hours, you will be paid well for your extra time.